


The Bounds of Life and Death

by EssayOfThoughts



Series: Could Frame Thy Fearful Symmetry (MCU Maximoff/HP Crossover) [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Codependency, Crossover, Department of Mysteries, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-21 03:06:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6035590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The twins lost their parents in this war, and they know the signs where other's doubt.</p><p>It is simple enough to join the DA, and simpler still to fight at Potter's side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Bounds of Life and Death

Wanda saw her brother fall through the Veil in the Department of Mysteries and her scream ripped apart the bounds between life and death.

Magic, her true scarlet magic, not the meagre sparks she forced out through her wand, filled the chamber, thrust all back, Death Eater or Dumbledore’s Army, she did not care. Her magic forced them back, forced them away. Her magic took her despair, and let scarlet turn burgundy turn black.

And despair was made manifest.

 

* * *

 

Pietro had fallen, from stone and a world of noise and rife with spells, to a world of silence, hovering between the _here_ and the _there_. He knew he was not dead – _could_ not be, with half his soul in Wanda, and half her soul in him. Neither could die so long as one of them lived.

But he was not in the world of the living any longer, and he did not know what to do.

 

* * *

 

Wanda’s scream went on and on and on, and her scarlet scarred everything living in the chamber. Dementors, made from the despair hovering over the Arch of the Veil, tried to move, but scarlet held them fast. Wanda’s mind was a cycling mantra, _My brother, mine, my soul, half my soul, shared soul, **mine**._

The rift that was meant to be was destroyed. A rift forced into being was made instead.

The Veil _tore_.

 

* * *

 

Pietro felt, more than heard, the world ripping around him. It felt jagged and off kilter, broken and bumpy, and with it came a searing scream that Pietro knew, instinctively, was Wanda’s. Scarlet came scything through the off-white surrounding him, scarlet the same colour as the sliver of soul that was settled in his own breast, and Pietro let his wand float free in the nothingness and flung his magic, with all his mind and focus, toward Wanda’s scarlet.

 

* * *

 

Wanda’s scream choked off as scarlet was met by blue around the ripped Veil. It interlinked, interwove, made purple and burgundy and navy, branches of blue meeting fingers of scarlet, and binding the gaping hole open. Death Eaters and Dumbledore’s Army alike were loosed to slump to the floor, the dementors descended.

From the gaping Veil _things_ flew, white and flowing through like ghosts, some bodies, some bones, some beings not quite bodies but not spectres either. Some flew to dementors, turned their tattered velvet black paler and paler ‘til they were but cobwebs and collapsed into webs of light. Others flew to people, settled beside them or within them. Others pulled apart the arch that had held the veil, others vanished off, and in the swirling vortex Wanda cared for only one thing.

Pietro came hurtling through the veil, into the world, into Wanda’s arms, and the world was silent again.

 

* * *

 

“My _soul_ ,” Wanda breathed into Pietro’s ear, and rocked him from side to side in her arms. “You are half of my _soul_.”

“I know,” Pietro murmured back. “But we have a fight now, and I lost my wand in the Veil.”

It was without question that Wanda pressed her wand into his hand. “I will find another,” she promised, and scrambled towards a Death Eater reaching for the length of Ash before them. There was a vicious pleasure in Wanda’s expression as she kicked them in the face, took the wand and stunned them.

They could hear murmuring around them, Death Eater and Dumbledore’s Army both, and Pietro almost rolled his eyes as he stunned a shifting body in Death Eater robes. “Potter gave us a job didn’t he?” he called, and grinned as the Army joined the fray.

 

* * *

 

They were back at school, in the Hospital Wing, before they are finally asked what happened. Potter was curled and unconscious on his bed, DA gathered around still, few in the beds they were assigned, and dozing in chairs or on what places they have found to perch. Pietro was in his bed at Wanda’s insistence, and she was sat beside him, head resting on the covers, their hands interlinked. She did not stir as Dumbledore drew close.

“Mr. Maximoff.” Dumbledore’s voice was soft, his eyes bright and twinkling, and Pietro stroked a reassuring thumb over Wanda’s hand. She was exhausted after tearing apart the Veil, bringing him back, fighting on afterwards, and he did not want to wake her. Then again, he mused, she would not want to be left out of this, so he changed the pressure he strokes her hand with the least amount, and watched as his sister began to stir.

Then she noticed Dumbledore, and settled into faux-sleep.

“Professor,” Pietro said, and inclined his head slightly, like a recalcitrant student. He was _not_ , not by a long shot, but he had a fairly certain idea of why the Headmaster wished to talk to them and had no intention of getting them both expelled. (Horcruxes were Dark magic, after all, and Wanda had pointed out that if anyone knew what they had done they would be reviled for it at least, and sent to Azkaban at worst.)

The headmaster scanned them both, Wanda breathing softly, looking for all the world as though she was still asleep, her hand wrapped around Pietro’s, his free hand gently combing through the tangles of her hair.

“You survived what many would not, down in the Department of Mysteries,” Dumbledore said, and Pietro’s nod was a sudden jerk, his hands beginning to shake in Wanda’s hands and hair.

“We are twins,” he said softly. “There is a magic to twinship, just as there is in blood.”

He could _feel_ Dumbledore’s gaze, the pale piercing blue, even as he kept his eyes fixed on Wanda’s hand, Wanda’s hair. He could see the very very slight movement of her hand going to her pocket, to the Ash wand she had taken from the Death Eater as the Veil fell to pieces.

“I suppose there is,” Dumbledore said eventually. “Though I suggest your sister begins study into wandless magic. I have some wonderful books from the Uagadou School of Magic on the subject, and it would help her control her magic in such events again.”

Pietro nodded again, less jerkily, and stroked a hand over Wanda’s head, through her hair, and saw the subtle shift as she tucked her new wand back into her pocket. As the Headmaster turned to leave her hand twitched just slightly in his, and Pietro knew the discussion in the morning was going to be a long one.

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and crit are very much appreciated!


End file.
